Define your history to know where you're going · Practice

Identity Evolution no. 03

Consciously, we often only look back on our personal history when it feels relevant to a current moment, or something temporarily stirs our memory. Unconsciously, certain memories can ruminate under the surface, creating an aura of influence on our day-to-day choices and the unfolding of our lives in the present.

We don’t often string the timeline of these conscious and unconscious memories together to make sense of the narrative we’re in the process of creating.

What’s beneficial about writing your own timeline, and understanding the evolution of how you’ve arrived at yourself now, is that you get to move completely into the drivers seat of your life.

In the past you may not have had complete agency over how you were sculpted and molded, or even had 20/20 vision for the choices you made – so when you look back at your history with the insight you have now, you step into agency and purpose, make sense of your story, and take control of the pen.

The intention behind this exercise is to help you define and clarify the history from which you’ve evolved from as a way to orient yourself for where you’re moving towards next.

It’s a practice that might take some time to move through, but will leave you on the other end with a greater understand of the windings and ramblings of your life up until today.

I created this practice as an extension of the Identity Evolution workbook, but it can be done on it’s own as well.

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The Practice

To enter into this practice, I recommend that you set aside some time alone, with a paper and pen (or writing tools of your choice) in a place where you can be thoughtful and soften into yourself.

The steps below are simple, but the practice is deep. Allow yourself to dive as far in as you wish. To further you go, the more treasure you’ll find.